Under cabinet knife storage unit

ABSTRACT

An under the cabinet knife storage unit with a knife storage board with a planar top surface and a number of inlaid neodymium disk-shaped magnets that act as contact points for removable PLA brackets; removable PLA (or equivalent material) brackets with inlaid neodymium disk-shaped magnets; and a mounting bracket arrangement for mounting the knife storage board under a kitchen cabinet. The mounting bracket arrangement alternating between an extended position for the knife storage board and a retracted position for the knife storage board. The extended position being at least four inches forward of the retracted position. In the extended position, the knife storage board lies at an angle of between 15 degrees and 60 degrees from the knife storage board in the retracted position.

BACKGROUND

Various arrangements are available for storing knives, utensils andsmall tools or under cabinet cook book holders, but no product addressesa multitude of uses such as, inducing but not limited to, knife storageunit, cook book holder, electronics charging station, or display unit. Apopular method to store knives is the knife block, which is utilizeselongated predetermined slots for the storage of each item and its solepurpose is to store cutlery. This method not only takes up preciouscounter space but provides a crevice for mold and bacteria to grow, adark secluded area for unwanted insects to hide, and the user has toblindly select the desired item as they are out of site. The presentinvention provides a surface that is in full view and can be cleaned andsanitized. Another item on the market is a magnetic bar that is mountedto the wall with screws. The present invention is mounted under acabinet so the knives are not in full view, especially children. Thepresent invention also does not require the damaging of walls orbacksplashes. The in-drawer knife storage unit is another option on themarket. This invention utilizes a slotted piece of wood that is placedinside a drawer and again, the knives take up precious space and arehidden from view for easy selection. The current invention alsoincorporates very strong neodymium rare earth magnets encased in a PLA,polylactic acid or polylactide, is a biodegradable thermoplasticaliphatic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn, cornstarch, tapioca roots, chips or starch, or sugarcane, and is a nontoxicresin, or comparable material bracket, which is a unique feature notincluded on other units. The current invention uses recessed neodymiumdisk-shaped magnets placed on the board itself for the complimentarymagnetically charged brackets to be attached. This is to allow for easyremoval of the magnetic brackets for: cleaning, replacement, and variousother reasons. Under cabinet cook book holders and display units arealso available but are designed solely for those purposes. The abilityto remove the magnetic brackets also allows the unit to be used as acookbook holder, electronics charging station, viewing surface forelectronics, and is aesthetically pleasing to the eye as the currentinvention can be manufactured in a multitude of colors and finishes toboth the board and magnetic bracket assemblies.

SUMMARY

The present invention relates to the storage of kitchen cutlery, smallutensils/tools, or any reasonably magnetically susceptible items as wella cook book holder, charging station for electronics. The currentinvention utilizes a board which can be positioned in a virtually unseenposition under a cabinet when not in use (FIG. 1), lowered to viewstored items by use of a handle or comparable item, select the desiredstored item (FIG. 2), then return to the original position utilizing aspring hinge mechanism. The invention uses neodymium disk-shaped magnetsencased in rectangular shaped elongated PLA brackets to securely holdreasonably magnetically susceptible items such as knives, scissors,screw drivers, or comparable items. The magnetic brackets are removabletherefore making the unit multifunctional. After removing the magneticbrackets, the unit can be utilized as, but not limited to, a cookbook ora multitude of items on the unit for their viewing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an under cabinet multifunctional knifestorage unit designed to hold knives, scissors, small utensils, or anyreasonably magnetically susceptible item as well as but not limited to acook book holder, electronics charging station, or display unit.

2. Description of Prior Art

There are several under cabinet knife storage units on the market,however none of them are equivalent to the present invention becausethey do not provide for the multitude of uses as the current inventiondoes.

U.S. Pub. No. 2015/0351570 A1, issued Dec. 10, 2015, to Susan Lukjan,displays an under counter knife storage unit utilizing hinges andstationary ceramic magnets encased by a U-shape metallic channel. Thecurrent invention has removable neodymium disk-shaped magnets encased ina PLA or equivalent material bracket. The magnetic brackets areremovable to expand the usage to a book holder, charging station forelectronics, or any number of uses.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,846,005, issued Nov. 5, 1974, to Marie R. Harper,displays a utensil storage unit that utilizes slots to store knives. Thecurrent invention uses neodymium disk-shaped magnets encased in a PLAbracket, entire selection of objects is viewable at one time, no slotsfor bacteria and/or pests to hide, easily cleanable, and ismultifunctional as a book holder or electronics charging station.

U.S. Pat. No. 2,839,349, issued Jun. 17, 1958, to Paul C. Culver,displays a knife drawer unit that utilizes slots for knife storage andis designed to go inside a drawer. The current invention is an under thecabinet unit that utilizes neodymium magnets encased in a PLA bracket,as well as reasons cited above.

U.S. Pat. No. 2,599,416, issued Jun. 28, 1951, to Carleton EnglerSaecker, displays a book holder. The current invention is designed tostore knives and any reasonably magnetically charged object as well asfunction as a book holder.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,145, issued Oct. 14, 1981, to Masumi Ando, displaysa book holder. The current invention is designed to store knives and anyreasonably magnetically charged object as well as function as a bookholder.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,634 B1, issued Aug. 20, 2002, to Audrey K. Webb,John R. Hamilton, Michael Welsh, Scott Miller, and Kevin Miller,displays a display shelf apparatus. The current invention is designed tostore knives and any reasonably magnetically charged object as well asfunction as a book holder.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,851,306 B2, issued Oct. 7, 2014, to Steven MichaelJoseph Spurr, displays a concealable storage rack designed to holdcontainers of concentrated drinks. The current invention is designed tostore knives and any reasonably magnetically charged objects as well asfunction as a book holder.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,348,068 B2, issued on Jan. 8, 2013, to Mark Huentelman,displays and under the cabinet knife storage unit that is stationary,doesn't display entire selection of knives at once, knife blades are notdiscretely hidden under cabinet, and uses slots to encase knife blades.The current invention utilizes hinges, displays entire selection ofknives at one time, retracts discretely under the cabinet. The currentinvention is also multifunctional in that magnets can be removed andunit can function as book holder or a charging station for electronics.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,971,736 B1, issued Jul. 5, 2011, to John MichaelStewart, displays a magnetic knife holder that is stationary and isdesigned to attach to a wall. The current invention attaches to theunderside of a cabinet discretely retracts out of view by the use of ahinge mechanism. The current invention is also multifunctional asmentioned in above argument.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,499,943, issued Aug. 6, 2013, to Jaqueline P. Neldner,displays a decorative magnetic tool holding apparatus and method ofholding scissors. The current invention attaches to the underside of acabinet and retracts out of view by the use of a hinge mechanism. Thecurrent invention is also multifunctional as mentioned in aboveargument.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and many of the current inventions advantages willbe apparent from the following descriptions when taken in conjunctionwith the drawings, which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention mounted to theunderside of a cabinet unit in the closed position.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the present invention in the downwardopen position which enables the viewing of stored items.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the present invention displayed in theunmounted and closed position.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the present invention displayed in theunmounted partially open position.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the present invention displayed in theunmounted open position.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the spring hinge mechanism inthe open position.

FIG. 7 is an isometric view of the current invention in accordance withone embodiment of the present subject matter.

FIG. 8 is an isometric view of the current invention in accordance withone embodiment of the present subject matter.

FIGS. 9 and 10 are perspective views of alternative uses for the unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention has utility as a storage unit for knives,scissors, small utensils, or any reasonably magnetically susceptiblematerial. Additionally, the present invention can be utilized as acookbook holder, charging station for electronics, or to display/hold amultitude of items. The present invention allows the owner to safely andsecurely store their items discreetly under a cabinet in a sanitary andeasily cleanable manner or the above mentioned purposes.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the knife storage unit 10 in theretracted position, where it is stowed under the cabinet 12, nearly outof sight.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the knife storage unit 10 in theextended position, and mounted under a cabinet 12 by means of a hingearrangement 14. The knife storage unit 10 includes a knife board 16,which is generally rectangular and defines a planar top surface. (Theremay be recesses or other irregularities in the top surface as well, ifdesired.) A front edge lip 18, which extends upwardly above the planartop surface of the knife board 16 defines a central recess 20 thatserves as a handle 48, to enable the user to grasp the knife storageunit 10 to pull in a downward fashion from the cabinet to the positionin FIG. 1

The under cabinet knife storage unit 16 has a plurality of elongatedbrackets 24, 26 that encase neodymium rare earth magnets 22. Twoelongated rectangular shaped magnetic brackets 26 extend in afront-to-back orientation. The magnetic brackets 22, 24 preferablyproject upwardly above the generally planar surface of the knife boardso that they contact the blade 28 of the knife when the knife handle 30is lying flat on the planar top surface of the knife board 16.

As depicted in FIG. 2, there is a large space in the right-to-leftdirection on the right end of the knife board 16, which provides a placefor the handles 28 of the right-to-left oriented knifes to rest, whilethe blades 28 of those knives contact the neodymium rare earth magnetics22. The front edge lip 18 provides a stop for the blade and handle ofthe lowermost right-to-left oriented knife.

On the left side of the knife board 16 of FIG. 1, to the rear of thefront-to-rear midpoint, there is one right-to-left magnetic bracket 24,which contacts the blades 28 of the front-to-back oriented knives, whilethe front lip 18 provides a stop for the handles of those knives. Sincethis knife board 16 is longer in the left-to-right direction than in thefront-to-back direction, the longer knives are oriented in theright-to-left orientation, with their blades 28 contacting the twofront-to-back oriented magnetic brackets 26, and the shorter knives areoriented in the front-to-back direction, with their blades contactingthe right-to-left oriented magnets 26. The additional front-to-backmagnetic bracket provides two contact points 26 to avoid pivoting andmovement of knife handle 30 when unit is raised and lowered.

When the under cabinet knife storage unit 10 is in the extended positionshown in FIG. 2, the planar top surface of the knife board 16 preferablyis oriented at an angle of between 30 degrees and 60 degrees from thebottom surface of the cabinet 12 and is moved forward so that its frontedge lip 18 lies at least four inches forward of the front edge of thecabinet 12. This enables the user to have a good view of the knives andbe able to reach all the knives to remove them and replace them from thestorage unit 10. When the under cabinet knife storage unit 10 is in theretracted position show shown in FIG. 1, the knife board lies parallelto the bottom surface of the cabinet 12, and the front edge lip 18 is nofarther forward than the front face of the cabinet 12. Two hinge legs 40are pivotally connected to each upper plate 36 at pivot points 40 andextend downwardly, where they are connected to a respective lower plate42 at pivot points 44. The left and right lower hinge plate supports 42and are secured to the bottom surface of the knife board 16 using theappropriate number of wood screws.

This hinge arrangement 14 has an advantage in that it brings the undercabinet knife board 16 forward and angles the front of the knife board16 downwardly when it is moved from the retracted position to theextended position, making the objects very accessible to the user.

While this hinge arrangement 14 is shown as one preferred example, thereare other known hinge arrangements that alternatively could be used. Forexample, the board 16 could be mounted to the cabinet 12 by means of afront-to-back oriented track, which allows the user to bring the board16 forward, and then a hinge or hinges could be provided to enable theuser to move the knife board to the preferred angle.

The isometric view depicted in FIG. 7 exhibits the neodymium magnetbracket 24, 26, placement onto knife board 16. On the left hand side ofthe knife board 16, approximately two-thirds distance from front lip 18,in a left-to-right configuration, there will be two predeterminedrecesses in which a single disc shaped neodymium magnet will be placedwith a complimentary polarity to the adjoining magnetic bracket assembly24. The two front-to-back magnet brackets attach to the knife board 16using the same technique: two predetermined recesses 46 strategicallyplaced for each magnetic bracket to attach at both top and bottom ofbracket.

The perspective views 9,10, depict additional uses for knife board 16.

The preferred embodiments of the current invention may be constructedusing the following steps:

-   -   1. Obtain knife board may be constructed from a variety of        materials such as wood, bamboo, or a plastic composite to name a        few.    -   2. Insert a small amount of adhesive in predrilled predetermined        recesses and insert disk-shaped neodymium magnets.    -   3. Attach the left and right hinges using wood screws or        appropriate technique for material of knife board.    -   4. Attach pull down handle using appropriate fasteners taking        into account knife board material and decorative handle used.    -   5. Obtain magnet bracket with predrilled inserts for magnets.    -   6. Insert small amount of adhesive in predrilled predetermined        recesses and insert disk-shaped neodymium magnets.    -   7. Place removable magnet brackets along the knife board,        aligning appropriate magnetic poles.

It will be obvious those skilled in the art that various modificationsmay be made to the under cabinet knife storage arrangement shown anddescribed herein without departing from the scope of the presentinvention as claimed.

1. A knife storage unit, mountable under a cabinet or shelf, the knifestorage unit comprising; (a) a knife storage board comprising a planartop surface and a plurality of inlaid neodymium disk-shaped magnets themagnets positioned to act as contact points for removable knifebrackets; (b) a plurality of removable knife brackets with inlaidneodymium disk-shaped magnets; (c) a mounting bracket arrangement formounting the knife storage board under the cabinet or shelf, saidmounting bracket arrangement defining an extended position for the knifestorage board and a retracted position for the knife storage board,wherein the extended position is at least four inches forward of theretracted position and wherein, in the extended position, the knifestorage board lies at an angle of between 15 degrees and 60 degrees fromthe knife storage board in the retracted position.
 2. The knife storageunit of claim 1 wherein the mounting bracket arrangement comprises twoextendable hinge brackets, one extendable hinge bracket positioned oneach lateral side of the knife storage board and attachable to anunderside of the cabinet or shelf.
 3. The knife storage unit of claim 2wherein each extendable hinge bracket further comprises a retractionspring facilitating movement of the knife storage board from theextended position to the retracted position.
 4. The knife storage unitof claim 1 wherein the knife storage board further comprises a frontedge lip positioned on and extending up from a front edge of the planartop surface.
 5. The knife storage unit of claim 1 further comprising anoperational handle positioned on the knife storage board to facilitatemovement between the retracted position and the extended position. 6.The knife storage unit of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality ofremovable knife brackets comprises a downward facing surface and anupward facing surface, the downward facing surface positioning aplurality of the inlaid neodymium disk-shaped magnets on the removableknife bracket to contact the plurality of inlaid neodymium disk-shapedmagnets on the knife storage board, the upward facing surfacepositioning a plurality of the inlaid neodymium disk-shaped magnets onthe removable knife bracket to contact and secure a knife.
 7. The knifestorage unit of claim 1 wherein the plurality of removable knifebrackets comprise PLA material.
 8. The knife storage unit of claim 1wherein the plurality of removable knife brackets comprise at least twobrackets oriented parallel to each other to facilitate securing anindividual large knife at a point on each bracket for a more secureattachment of the knife.
 9. The knife storage unit of claim 8 furthercomprising at least one removable knife bracket oriented orthogonal tothe at least two brackets oriented parallel to each other.
 10. A knifestorage unit, mountable under a cabinet or shelf, the knife storage unitcomprising: (a) a knife storage board comprising a planar top surface;(b) a plurality of knife brackets, each knife bracket having a pluralityof inlaid neodymium disk-shaped magnets; (c) a mounting bracketarrangement for mounting the knife storage board under the cabinet orshelf, said mounting bracket arrangement defining an extended positionfor the knife storage board and a retracted position for the knifestorage board, wherein the extended position is at least four inchesforward of the retracted position and wherein, in the extended position,the knife storage board lies at an angle of between 15 degrees and 60degrees from the knife storage board in the retracted position.
 11. Theknife storage unit of claim 10 wherein the mounting bracket arrangementcomprises two extendable hinge brackets, one extendable hinge bracketpositioned on each lateral side of the knife storage board andattachable to an underside of the cabinet or shelf.
 12. The knifestorage unit of claim 11 wherein each extendable hinge bracket furthercomprises a retraction spring facilitating movement of the knife storageboard from the extended position to the retracted position.
 13. Theknife storage unit of claim 10 wherein the knife storage board furthercomprises a front edge lip positioned on and extending up from a frontedge of the planar top surface.
 14. The knife storage unit of claim 10further comprising an operational handle positioned on the knife storageboard to facilitate movement between the retracted position and theextended position.
 15. The knife storage unit of claim 10 wherein eachof the plurality of knife brackets comprises a downward facing surfaceand an upward facing surface, the downward facing surface fixed to theknife storage board, the upward facing surface positioning a pluralityof the inlaid neodymium disk-shaped magnets on the knife bracket tocontact and secure a knife.
 16. The knife storage unit of claim 1wherein the plurality of knife brackets comprise PLA material.
 17. Theknife storage unit of claim 1 wherein the plurality of knife bracketscomprise at least two brackets oriented parallel to each other tofacilitate securing an individual large knife at a point on each bracketfor a more secure attachment of the knife.
 18. The knife storage unit ofclaim 17 further comprising at least one knife bracket orientedorthogonal to the at least two brackets oriented parallel to each other.